What is the easiest way to color a b&w line drawing(i.e. comic book style).I've tried different kinds of layers,the magic wand and different airbrush settings.I want the black line areas to show 100%.Is it also possible to do this with pencil drawings where you have different shades of grey? I'm using Photoshop 4 and Photopaint 8.I've seen it done but I'm not happy with the results I'm getting.

The easiest way to do this is to try and separate the black lines from the white background. The best way to do this is to use either the magic wand or the select/colour range/shadows command. Put the black outlines in a new layer and paint in a layer underneath. If you get an effect that the outlines are too sharp and have jagged edges, simply duplicate them into another layer and use a little gaussian blur on the copy. Hopefully this will give you the result you are looking for.

I would advise you to check out the tutorials section at www.comiccolors.com a site dedicated to computer comic colouring.Jacko,s method above works fine the only difference between what he describes and what the pro,s do is that they load the line art in as a seperate channel but that,a just to save memory as they work at 300dpi for printing.It is better to work at as high a dpi as your computer will let you to keep the line art smooth then reduce it.There is also a link on there to download a series of actions that will set the art up for you ready to colour.If you cant find it just ask.

Why not just move the drawing to a new layer, change the blend mode to "Multiply" and draw your colors on the background layer. It works well and is simple.